Critics say big changes planned for the 23-acre parcel would destroy lush trees that house nesting blue herons; developer says all the facts aren’t in

Environmental activists and residents of Mariners Village — a 981-unit housing complex spanning 23 sylvan acres near the northern mouth of Marina del Rey harbor — are on the offensive against plans to redevelop the parcel that would destroy hundreds of mature trees.

The canopies of those trees, opponents say, are some of the last remaining local nesting grounds for blue herons, cormorants and other sea birds that have been displaced by widespread tree removal at other parcels in the marina over the past 15 years.

The proposal by Marina Admiralty Co., the original late 1960s builders and current leaseholders of Mariners Village, would not increase the number of units on the property but would significantly alter its footprint and architectural style.

Over a period of about 10 years, new construction would redirect roadways to carve out four separate neighborhoods, with building groups receiving exterior facelifts in various architectural styles described as modern, contemporary, Cape Cod and Mediterranean.

The new footprint would revolve around a renovated town center, where 7,000 square feet of visitor-serving retail would be added to an existing 2,000 square feet of resident-serving shops.

Nearly as controversial as the removal of trees is the widening of a currently private 18-foot wide waterfront promenade by about 10 feet. The promenade would be opened for public recreation and access to 92 newly created boat slips, including a public dock and water taxi area, according to project documents. There are currently no boat slips along the rocky shoreline of Mariners Village.

More than 100 people attended a raucous meeting of the Los Angeles County Design Control Board last Wednesday at Burton Chace Park, where audience members shouted jeers during a presentation of the project by Marina Admiralty Co. representative Michael Sondermann.

Architectural renderings of development plans show a Mariners Village that “looks like a prison,” shouted one attendee. “Where are the trees?” shouted another.

While renderings showed a highly reduced tree canopy, Sondermann said a landscape plan for the $200-million renovation proposal has yet to be finalized and submitted to the county.

The company expects to submit preliminary environmental review documents to the county next week in order to initiate a public approvals process lasting 18 months or more, Sondermann said.

“The tree plan we showed at the meeting was very preliminary. There’s certainly a lot of room to talk about what types of trees, what sizes,” Sondermann said during a subsequent interview.

But the admitted removal of most of Mariners Village’s existing trees was enough to prompt two-dozen people, including congressional candidate Marianne Williamson, to hold a demonstration outside the meeting and others to call for blue heron protections.

“How can this plan protect these birds when it means taking out nearly every single tree?” asked Marcia Hanscom, executive director of the Ballona Institute and chair of the Sierra Club’s Ballona Restoration Committee.

Others say the restructuring of Mariners Village is also a quality of life issue for its human inhabitants.

Mariners Village resident Chris Cate said the displacement of nesting sea birds prompted him to speak out about the plans, but he also objects to the potential urbanization of what may be the last green patch of Marina del Rey.

The view from the current rocky waterfront of Mariner’s Village is the Ballona Wetlands ecological reserve, creating a quiet, meditative space that’s a refuge from surrounding visual noise. If that waterfront is developed for boat slips, “the virgin view we have from the promenade looking across the channel will never be the same,” Cate said.

“Privacy and natural landscape are truly rare in this city,” resident Anna Hoff told the Design Control Board. The rustic waterfront, she said, brings her “incredible peace of mind.”

Sondermann said that many of the proposed changes are in response to county lease renewal requirements, which Marina Admiralty Co. must meet before its lease expires in nine years.

Under the area’s local coastal plan, officials will not extend the lease for Mariners Village unless the waterfront promenade is made public and widened to at least 28 feet, Sondermann said.

The company hopes to construct a $5-million seawall to create the 10-foot waterfront extension, Sondermann said.

When environmental review is complete, the project must be approved by the California Coastal Commission and the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission. It will also return to the county Design Control Board.

9 Comments

Patti Balian
on April 3, 2014 at 4:20 pm

Do “We the Residents” at Mariner’s Village rock?! I have clicked my ruby slippers up Captain’s Row for the last 28 years because there’s no place like home at Mariner’s Village. The majestic Great Blue Herons obviously agree. MV is on county “owned” land; that means the people’s land. And “the people” really are the caretakers. Elected officials are not “the boss,” Mr. Knabe. Don’t pay any attention to that man behind the curtain.

We already encroach on wild life enough as it is in this area. Baby herons in their nest by the pool here, ducks crossing your path. The plan to take out trees for more shops and parking lots reminds me of the Joni Mitchell lyric (They paved paradise to put up a parking lot). And I can’t believe anyone would think we need more shops in the area. As for the planned boat slips to be added (narrowing the channel in front of Mariners Village): In summer, the main channel can already get crowded with various size crafts, coming and going as well as paddle boarders, kayakers,sea lions and dolphins going out to open sea and back. The narrowing of the channel is an unnecessarily dangerous proposition.

As important as trees and birds are, Journalist Joe failed to mention the detrimental effect on the hundreds of long term residents that have made Mariner’s Village their homes. I am a land use consultant representing residents at Bar Harbor, who are being forced out of their homes so that the property can also be demolished, and replaced by luxury apartments, that only the wealthy will be able to afford. As I stated at last weeks Design Control Board meeting, Los Angeles County has a Conflict of Interest ordinance that prohibits the Design Control Board and the Regional Planning Commission from deciding on permits on properties that are owned by the County of Los Angeles. Both the land where Bar Harbor and Mariner’s Village are located is owned by the County of Los Angeles, and it is a violation of the law for the County Department of Regional Planning to decide on luxury housing projects that will generate tens of millions of dollars in revenue for the County of Los Angeles. Further, every item on last week’s Design Control Board Agenda pertained to properties owned by the County of Los Angeles, and they therefore had no right to hear any of the cases! I am very concerned as to why the County Conflict of Interest laws are allegedly regularly being violated, why Supervisor Knabe isn’t very concerned about it, and most important, why Journalist Joe failed to mention it in his story?

I appreciate the article about the Design Control Meeting Wednesday, March 26. I was one of the speakers at that meeting…a resident of Mariners Village. Your article has a very blaring omission…it never said that the DCB TURNED DOWN the design presented by the lease holders/developers of the complex. They plan to remove EVERY tree in the complex and too many other changes to mention…but suffice to say, everything that makes this community so unique, beautiful and “back to nature”…nowhere else like it anywhere. You also failed to write about the presentation by John Nahhas which showed all of the proposed development yet to come to our community. I would think the Argonaut as a community paper would be publicizing the development and its side effects; i.e. traffic (already almost impossible), accelerating rents, displacement of longtime residents, etc. Please keep your constituents in mind…not just your advertisers (real estate developers).

Just wondering why this article does not mention that the LA County Beaches & Harbors Design Control Board voted 3-0 to DENY the plan as proposed and gave specific instructions for the developers to RE-SUBMIT their application with a new design that keeps the ponds, keeps the waterfalls, RETAINS THE TREES! – and has NO marina on the waterfront. While we realize this denial is not the end of the process, it is an IMPORTANT victory for the community, for nature, for the Great Blue Herons!

So glad to hear that good news Marcia! I’m in another state now, but grew up near MDR and still love riding down the bike path to the haven that is Fisherman’s Village when I visit family. I wish it would never change. Please keep up the fight for all of us!!

I was not at the meeting and wondering if the lead/asbestos environmental hazards (not mentioned in this article)
were addressed by the Design Control Board: “Due to the age of the existing structures on the Project site, renovation and/or demolition activities could have potential to release hazardous materials including, asbestos-containing materials and lead-based materials into the environment.”

I can’t imagine that the county would continue to demand such an ecologically disruptive series of “improvements” if the public outcry against them were loud enough. Open the promenade to the public, gently, by opening the gates at the ends,, add a bike lane and call it good!
I could also see doing something more productive with the concrete courtyards of some of the larger buildings, like more plantings.

I have to say like many things of this nature this is all one sided. I’ve lived here (Mariner’s Village) for 12 years. To give some background I’m a member of the Sierra Club and I’ve also donated more money and time to the SPCA then 99.9% of the people in the world. Not to mentions shoveling crap in kennels. I’ve also sponsored concerts with my name right next to large companies for the SPCA. So don’t tell me I don’t care. BUT there is another side to this. Over the last few years the birds have taken residence in the trees directly in front of my apartment. They were not living here when I moved in and not for years after. Now I live in absolute filth and my front door looks like a rundown trailer park. Multiple times I’ve been crapped on as I walk to my car (you can’t even walk around). Having to step over rotting dead heron’s, half-digested fish and various carcasses so rancid I could not tell what they were. Yes….this all right outside my bedroom window. BTW…the complex is not allowed to wash because the bird crap will go in the ocean. HELLO…they live by the ocean.

All night these herons do battle and let me tell you it is not a chirp but more like people being horribly tortured all night long. I can’t tell you how long it has been since I had a good night’s sleep. BTW we do not have air conditioners so we can’t close the windows at night.

Yes the birds have a place in the world but to think that this is just about saying “save the birds” means you are out of touch with reality. My mother always told me if you were going to complain about something come to the table with an answer to the problem. To just stand around with a sign and complain is not an answer. To expect that people like myself after living here for years should all of a sudden have to live in filth, noise and rotting animals is not the answer. To be really productive in this problem you need to answer simple problems like above.

For two years we had a group of raccoons living here. People complained about the raccoons. I begged them not to trap them and remove them (release). People would not listen. During their time here…no bird problem. Did any of you complain about the raccoons? Where were you then? Is it OK if we bring back the raccoons? Do we cut the tree down? If we do bring back the raccoon and they kill off the herons…what say you then or is it just human intervention?

Like I said I’ve lived here for over a decade and most of the people that I talk to around here love the birds but HATE living directly under them. You will never win this battle without an answer. Fact is, unless you come up with an answer that will cure the current problems…you and the birds may be worse off in the long run when all this is over.